Jan. 21: Drammers Indianapolis...
Indy Drammers!
We’re very excited for our next Drammers Indianapolis get together, taking place on Thursday, January 21st starting at 6pm, and we're very grateful that our friends at the awesome store Vine and Table have generously agreed to host. We've got a really fun lineup that we'll be tasting through, drumroll please...
Hammerhead Czech Vintage Single Malt Whisky, Aged 25 Years. This whisky has one of the most insane stories you're ever going to hear, where a Czech distillery was forced by the Soviet Union to make whisky in the Scotch style, managed to get quite good at it, and then somehow when the wall fell, these barrels were completely forgotten in a cellar. And wow did they age well. Today most world whiskies are lucky to crack the 10 year mark, making these Czech gems truly extraordinary. There were only a small number of these barrels discovered, so when they're gone it'll be a long time before there's even a chance of seeing something like it again. This is the European release, secured at a rare whisky auction, 40.7% abv.
Invergordon Single Grain Scotch, Aged 46 Years. That's not a typo - 46 years. Needless to say, most people don't get a chance to try a Scotch this old very often. This is a rare "Single Grain Scotch", which is not as well known as its more famous sibling Single Malt Scotch, and as a result can be very hard to find in America, especially extra aged versions like this. That's a shame because when they get older, these whiskies can be truly extraordinary. We'll get into all the differences between Single Grain and Single Malt Scotch during the tasting. 45.9% abv.
Two Expressions of Westland - American Single Malt - Medium Peated and Heavily Peated. Made from 100% barley just like a single malt scotch, but aged in Seattle where it’s made. We started to hear in late 2018 that they had decided to shut down their single cask program for at least 5 years. Assuming that's still their plan, that means that while their normal core range products are available in stores, it will be 4+ years before you’ll be able to find the much higher proof, cask strength version of their whisky anywhere outside the distillery gift shop. Luckily, our club is close with the distillery team, and they let us buy the very last 2 casks out of their single barrel program. We'll be tasting both tomorrow, one is medium peated (cask #430, 62.1% abv), and the other is heavily peated at (cask #3240 at 60.2% abv).
Two Expressions of Medley Bros. Exclusive Select Cask Kentucky Straight Bourbon (NY & Denver picks). Another club barrel pick, this time a fantastic unfiltered bourbon. It was produced by the Medley family, which is one of the oldest families in American whiskey, dating back to the late 1700s. In our view, this is one of those rare bourbons that is truly top-end (among other things, the Van Winkle family used to buy their rye from them), but whose availability has not yet been destroyed by the bottle flippers on Facebook. They did a special year-end program a year ago, where they released 25 "honey barrels" exclusively to clubs across the country, and we were honored that they selected our club for New York, Los Angeles and Denver -- we'll be tasting the NY and Denver barrels at our tasting in Indianapolis this week. Bottled at cask strength, completely unfiltered, at 62.14% abv for the NYC barrel and 56.7% for the Denver barrel.
Rezpiral Capon Espadin - We love mezcal here at Drammers Club, and we take great pride in going to Oaxaca to meet with the folks we want to work with to make sure we're on board with what they're doing. Rezpiral is an incredible company that feels as strongly as we do about making sure the maestro mezcaleros are being taken care of -- so much so that not only do they buy the mezcal at fair market prices, but they actually grow rare agaves on their own and give them to the mezcaleros for free, AND they give 30% of the profits from mezcal sales back to the producers, which is unheard of in this industry. We've selected 5 exclusive batches with them, all very special. The first is by maestro Mezcalero Aureliano Hernandez, and it is a "Capon" or "castrated" espadin, which we'll explain at the event, but it makes it sweeter than a normal espadin. It was also rested in glass for over 8 months, which made an enormous difference. on the final flavor. 46% abv.
Rezpiral Tobasiche - Next we'll be trying a tobasiche mezcal from Simeon and Apolonio Ramirez, whose palenque we had the pleasure of visiting in 2019. Unlike the sweeter capon espadin, which has some flavors that overlap with the whisky flavor wheel, tobasiche is more clearly in its own earthy and vegetal space, a true mezcal for mezcal lovers. These plants can take from 10 to 20 years to grow before they can be harvested for mezcal. Note that both Rezpiral offerings are technically "spirits distilled from agave" as they do not go through the mezcal certification process, which we'll also explain at the event. 50.9% abv.
That's our lineup! We hope you can join us. Please let Sean or Charlie know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Sean Crain (Head of Indianapolis Chapter)
and Charlie (club president)